Book 5
THUS had the smiles of Fortune and her frowns
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Brought either chief to Macedonian shores
Still equal to his foe. From cooler skies
Sank Atlas'The Pleiades, said to be daughters of Atlas. daughters down, and Haemus' slopes
Were white with winter, and the day drew nigh
Devoted to the god who leads the months,
And marking with new names the book of Rome,
When came the Fathers from their distant posts
By both the Consuls to Epirus called These were the Consuls for the expiring year, B.C. 49 - Caius Marcellus and L. Lentulus Crus.
Ere yet their year was dead: a foreign land
Obscure received the magistrates of Rome;
A senate sojourning in foreign lands
Held there high questions, not in warlike camp
But hedged by all the axes of the law;
And all men gazing on the reverend ranks
Knew that no Magnus' party there was met,
But all the state; and Magnus was but one.
Mid silent sadness from his lofty seat
Thus spake the Consul: ' If your hearts still beat
' With Latian blood, and if within your breasts
' Still lives your fathers' vigour, look not now
' On this strange land that holds us, nor enquire
'How far the captured city. Know the face
Of your own company; the rulers you
In all that comes. Be this your first decree,
' Whose truth all peoples and all kings confess;
' Be this the Senate. Let the frozen wain
' Demand your presence, or the torrid zone
' Wherein the day and night with equal tread
'For ever march; still follows in your steps
' The central power of Imperial Rome.
' When flamed the Capitol with fires of Gaul,
' When Veii held Camillus, there with him
' Was Rome, nor ever though it changed its clime
' Your order lost its rights. In Caesar's hands
' Are sorrowing houses and deserted homes,
' Laws silent for a space, and forums closed
' In public fast. His Senate-house beholds
' Those Fathers only whom from Rome it drove,
' While Rome was full. Of that high order all
